Coaching

I treat each client as unique, and begin the coaching engagement by interviewing the leader about her/his role, business challenges, ambitions and key stakeholders in order to make the coaching sessions as relevant and actionable as possible.

As the level of leadership challenge increases, you will find that the qualities that led to your promotion are not sufficient to succeed in your current role. Old habits might work against us as we move up the career ladder. Your ability to master your current role and stay ahead of the curve, will to a large extent depend on your ability to trust and empower others to do what once made yourself successful. This is where many leaders fail, and is thus a typical issue we address when we coach leaders in transition.

Most top leaders claim that they want a performance culture. But can you develop a true performance culture without having a feedback culture?  

Feedback is a prerequisite to develop as a leader. However, leaders rarely get true feedback from people around them. This is even more true for those of you who are top leaders.

I often hear top leaders saying things like “I keep an open door policy for everyone” or “I love to be challenged”. They think they are open to feedback, and get frustrated when they hear backdoor gossip. Why aren´t people coming to me directly? But why should anyone take the risk? Ask yourself, how do you really react when others hold opposing views?

The biggest lie of top management: "I love to be challenged"

In the challenging times of Covid- 19 job insecurity is likely to be higher than ever before. There is a risk that the members of your team say whatever they think you want to hear - in order to remain in your team. This could be a major threat to the success of your business.

The best leaders ask explicitly for feedback from key people around them, and they listen actively. Without getting defensive. In a study over 50,000 executives done by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman, they found that “Leaders who ranked at the top 10% in asking for feedback were rated, on average, at the 86th percentile in overall leadership effectiveness.”

Executive presence has long been acknowledged as a critical factor in leadership. “Skilled communicator”, “owns the room”, “has what it takes”, “inspiring”, “self confident”, “X-factor” are phrases often used to describe a leader with executive presence.

I'm certified on ExPI™ which is the only scientifically validated multi-rater feedback survey to measure executive presence and influence in leaders. I want the client to get a picture of how they are perceived by direct reports, peers, boss/board of directors and also other stakeholder groups, i.e. external network, former colleagues etc. In particular, I´m interested in any gaps between the leader´s intentions and the perception of others. This is a great starting point in executive coaching and development of top management teams.

Are you curious to hear more about how Nesvik and Partners can help you amplify what makes you stand out, and stay ahead of the curve? Are you ready to get challenged? Keep momentum and get in touch!

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